Simultaneous determination of plasma prothrombin and antithrombin III (heparin cofactor).

A method for the simultaneous determination of plasma prothrombin and antithrombin III has been developed. It involves activation of a dilute plasma solution with Taipan snake venom and measurement of the heparin-mediated loss of thrombin activity after short incubation. The antithrombin III content is quantitated on the basis of results with known mixtures of normal and antithrombin III-deficient plasmas.     

Cryptococcose, Morbus Hodgkin und Toxoplasmose mit Nekropsie

Wir berichten von dem Fall einer kutanen und Lungen-Cryptococcose bei einem 30jährigen Mann, der acht Jahre an einem Morbus Hodgkin litt. Es werden Nekropsie-Befunde besprochen, vor allem Veränderüngen am Gehirn, die auf eine Toxoplasma-Gondii-Infektion zurückzuführen sind. Es wird die kürzlich erschienene Literatur über Cryptococcose und Toxoplasmose besprochen.

Resumen

Se presenta un caso de criptococosis cutánea y pulmonar en un hombre de 30 años, que padecía de una enfermendad de Hodgkin de 8 años de evolución. Se describen las alteraciones encontradas en la necropsia, especialmente el hallazgo de lesiones cerebrales correspondientes a una toxoplasmosis. Se efectúa una revisión de la literatura reciente sobre criptococosis y toxoplasmosis.     

Differences in cardiac troponin I and T levels measured in asymptomatic hemodialysis patients with last generation immunoassays

Previous studies reported cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and T (cTnT) levels to be higher than normal in a significant proportion of asymptomatic chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients without evidence of acute myocardial injury. We have therefore evaluated in such patients the accuracy of cTnI and cTnT determinations measured with last generation assays. Fifty chronic HD patients (34 males) without symptoms of acute myocardial ischemia were studied. Their mean age (+/-SD) was 64.4+/-12.7 years, 22 patients (44%) had an history of cardiac ischemic disease and 19 (38%) were diabetics. Serum cardiac markers were measured with last generation assays before and after a single HD session and in a control group including 30 hospitalized patients without renal failure. The cTnI were determined with Dimension RxL "Improved method" assay (Dade Behring), the cTnT with Elecys "Third generation" assay (Roche Diagnostics) and the creatine kinase (CK) with Integra (Roche Diagnostics). The cTnI were also simultaneously determined with the assay previously used at our institution (Dimension RxL, Dade Behring), indicated as old-method-cTnI. With the last generation assay only 1 patient (2%) had elevated cTnI (>0.1 microg/l) in the study group compared to none in the control group (P=NS). Instead, with the old-method-cTnI assay 11 patients (22%) had elevated (>0.3 microg/l) predialysis cTnI levels (P<0.01 compared to the "Improved method" assay). The predialysis cTnT levels were higher than normal (>0.1 microg/l) in 23 patients (46%), compared to none in the control group (P<0.01). The CK levels were elevated (>170 IU/L) in 4 dialysis patients (8%) compared to one (3,3%) in the control group (P=NS). The cTnT levels slightly but non-significantly diminished during dialysis (from 0.102+/-0.070 to 0.085+/-0.067 mug/l, P=NS), while in the same time no changes were observed for cTnI and CK levels. In conclusion, the specificity of cTnI determinations in HD patients is greatly improved by the last generation assay (from 78 to 98%), and is actually similar to that observed in a population with normal renal function. Therefore cTnI, determined with the last generation assay used in the present study, can be reliably used for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes in HD patients. Instead, cTnT levels remain higher than normal in a significant proportion of asymptomatic HD patients (46%) and the reasons for this fact need further investigations.     

Automatic detection of abnormal vascular cross-sections based on density level detection and support vector machines

Purpose  

The goal is to automatically detect anomalous vascular cross-sections to attract the radiologist’s attention to possible lesions and thus reduce the time spent to analyze the image volume.